I am upping my hoops coverage on the site from basically zilch because I believe this team can be good this year and maybe win 20 games if things click.
Here's Mike Dunleavy after practice today. Always forthright, he spared no words about the poor effort in the first half of the loss to Memphis on Tuesday night, a point he really drove home in his post-game radio interview with Graff.
Understandably, you weren’t too thrilled with the effort in the first half against Memphis.
“Yeah, I felt like before the game we talked about their team and what the strength of it was, and it was that they are a very physical team that is going to try to overpower you on the boards and get their point guard to the rim against penetration. The two areas—transition points and second-chance points—it was paramount that we get stops, and we didn’t do it. Thirty points in the paint in the first half, transition, second chance, the whole spectrum of what we didn’t want.
“Obviously, the numbers in the second half were completely different. Instead of 30 points in the paint, 10 points. Instead of 13 points in transition, 2 points. Then all of a sudden we were playing our game. We were getting stops, we were getting out in transition, we were getting what we wanted to potentially get. Certain teams, you’ve got to come out and follow the game plan. I’m a little disappointed with our guys. OK, we had a great win at Temple, you read your press clippings and fall down against Tulsa. You get a great win against SMU, read our press clippings and we fall down against Memphis. Not that both of those teams aren’t capable of beating us. Of course they are. But I just wasn’t getting the effort that I needed.”
Even with better defense early in the second half, Memphis scored on three straight possessions by hitting tough shots. Was that the result of the confidence they got from getting easy baskets in the first half?
“Exactly. Right. They got a couple of big-time pieces in the sense that (Jeremiah) Martin was coming off a career high and (Mike) Parks was coming off a career high that he matched against us. (Martin scored 31 v. Tulane and Parks had 16). It was just too efficient. A couple of plays I would have said OK, you know what, tough shots. Good defense and the guy made a couple of tough shots, but that was after a couple of lay-ups. You let a scorer see the ball go through the basket a couple of times and all of a sudden, it’s game on.”
Jordan Cornish has been such a streaky shooter this year. Is there something in his form or his makeup that causes that?
“A lot of it is the type of shots you’re getting, getting good early rhythm shots and seeing the ball go through the basket versus having to shoot tough shots off the dribble and sometimes you miss a couple of shots. Everything as a coach, I’m always trying to figure out how do I get certain guys easy buckets and let them see the ball go through the basket. That’s a part of it.”
He’s a facilitator for your offense and does a lot of different things, but he’s only had six double-figure scoring games (out of 16). Do you want him to score more?
“It really depends just on the situation. Like you said, we put him in a lot of positions and ultimately we just want him making good reads. He’s’ got a post game, he’s got a pick and roll game, he’s got a 3-point game, so depending on who we’re playing, we put him in those kind of different situations and we’re happy if you’re in pick and rolls, if you’re just making plays, we don’t care about your scoring. It’s about efficiency, about what’s there and what you’re taking.”
At UNLV he shot the lights out in his freshman year, making 38 of 78 3s (48.7 percent) and 79.5 percent of his free throws, but his sophomore year he hit only 31 of 103 3s and 59.4 percent of his free throws. Is he a guy that gets on long streaks good and bad?
“Part of it I think was maybe conditioning, so we’re always constantly trying to do with our team, how many times have we come back from down double digits. We had a pretty good run the other night, but it was such a big-ass deficit, and to complicate it there were a bunch of points we would have gotten back. Take my technical foul away, take those two points away, where are we, but on the other hand, if I don’t get the T, they don’t review the 3-point play. I don’t mind getting a T if I’m wrong, but if I’m right … the referee from the weak side came over to get me. Whatever. It is what it is.”
What concerns you the most about UConn?
“They’ve got possibly the best point guard in the league and certainly one of the top point guards in the country in (Jalen) Adams. He’s certainly one of the top point guards in the country. He’s a scorer. He’s a facilitator (averages 18.5 points and 4.2 assists). (Terry) Larrier, their small forward, is 6-8 and really shoots the ball and can be a big-time scorer. Their perimeter guys are doing most of their scoring, but they are good. You’ve got to force them to shoot contested shots. We have to contain Adams first and make them shoot contested shots.”
It was a longer practice than usual (four hours counting film study). Is that a direct reflection of your disappointment in the Memphis game?
“We can do it because there’s no class, but it was the film session. We had a long film session because part of it encompassed the Memphis game in particular because some of the stuff that Memphis runs, UConn runs as well, so there’s an overlap there to see all the mistakes and come work on it as well. It was mainly because the film session went a long time.”
Samir Sehic hit three 3s against Memphis (in four attempts). That’s a part of his game but he had not shot them well to that point. How much can that help going forward?
“It’s one of the things that we need. He’s capable of certainly helping us without that, but that extra dimension is a great weapon for me to have. When we’re down I was able to run a couple of plays out of timeouts where you go bang-bang and all of sudden the lead shrunk. It’s a good job when you can make it back in those chunks.”
What do you want to see in the first half against UConn?
“We have a game plan, and if they beat us by executing against our game plan, they’re just a really good team. Guys contested shots and they made shots. It happens, but that means it’s going to be a close game. The game the other night, our effort level and what we gave up, those were the things you try to take away in the game plan. If they had made other shots because of what we were doing and how we were helping, that’s on me. I’ll take that and we’ve got to adjust to it, but we didn’t do it. Once we did it the second half, we had success, so it was really a matter of our effort and our focus and not coming out with that killer instinct.”
Melvin Frazier is in outstanding condition, but he had cramps in the second half against Memphis. What happened?
“It could have been tied to me not giving him a rest. That’s one thing. My assistants talked about substituting for him and I said I can’t take him off the floor. Right now he’s the guy they can’t guard (Frazier finished with 28 points) and I have to keep putting pressure on them. Either he was getting scores or we were getting good looks because of him. I don’t know. Keep getting more fluids, but it’s tough. When a guy’s your best defender and you go to him at the other end of the floor, he’s not getting much of a rest
“But I always go back to when I was in college, I didn’t come out of a game. I never came out of a game. I played 36 minutes a night. If a game was in doubt, I was in the game. I was in condition for it, and we try to condition our guys, but I get it. Cramps. He gave us a great effort, and it was unfortunate I had to take him out for a couple of minutes even.”
Sammis Reyes has not been around for a while. Is he gone permanently?
“Yeah. We had a conversation when we let him go to South America to play in this game (for the Chilean national team in November). He came back from South America, and the good news is had good exposure over there and thought there was maybe an opportunity for him to have some pro offers over there. We just talked in terms of how did I see his playing time and what was going on, and I told him basically it would be just kind of the way it’s been (Reyes played a total of seven minutes in two games). Our younger guys are going to play ahead of you. He said I have a chance to graduate this semester coming up. I’ve got to take a lot of hours in order to do it, but would you let me concentrate on my studies so I could graduate and maybe take advantage of some of the opportunities I have. I felt like that was fair and we would do that.
So he’s still on campus?
“He’s still in school. When this happened, I explained to the team, one time in a hundred would I like anybody leave our team to do this, but the fact is I don’t see playing time there and don’t want to hurt his opportunities. I’m all about what’s best for the kids, right? And so at the time it took place, it’s not going to hurt as a group. Hopefully it works out.”
**What's your take on whether or not UCF should have been in the playoff and whether writers should be shredded for voting the Knights as low as ninth?
"Wait, you're really going there again. How about doing a better job of providing timely news on your site rather than challenging your subscribers?
**(question not actually asked)
Here's Mike Dunleavy after practice today. Always forthright, he spared no words about the poor effort in the first half of the loss to Memphis on Tuesday night, a point he really drove home in his post-game radio interview with Graff.
Understandably, you weren’t too thrilled with the effort in the first half against Memphis.
“Yeah, I felt like before the game we talked about their team and what the strength of it was, and it was that they are a very physical team that is going to try to overpower you on the boards and get their point guard to the rim against penetration. The two areas—transition points and second-chance points—it was paramount that we get stops, and we didn’t do it. Thirty points in the paint in the first half, transition, second chance, the whole spectrum of what we didn’t want.
“Obviously, the numbers in the second half were completely different. Instead of 30 points in the paint, 10 points. Instead of 13 points in transition, 2 points. Then all of a sudden we were playing our game. We were getting stops, we were getting out in transition, we were getting what we wanted to potentially get. Certain teams, you’ve got to come out and follow the game plan. I’m a little disappointed with our guys. OK, we had a great win at Temple, you read your press clippings and fall down against Tulsa. You get a great win against SMU, read our press clippings and we fall down against Memphis. Not that both of those teams aren’t capable of beating us. Of course they are. But I just wasn’t getting the effort that I needed.”
Even with better defense early in the second half, Memphis scored on three straight possessions by hitting tough shots. Was that the result of the confidence they got from getting easy baskets in the first half?
“Exactly. Right. They got a couple of big-time pieces in the sense that (Jeremiah) Martin was coming off a career high and (Mike) Parks was coming off a career high that he matched against us. (Martin scored 31 v. Tulane and Parks had 16). It was just too efficient. A couple of plays I would have said OK, you know what, tough shots. Good defense and the guy made a couple of tough shots, but that was after a couple of lay-ups. You let a scorer see the ball go through the basket a couple of times and all of a sudden, it’s game on.”
Jordan Cornish has been such a streaky shooter this year. Is there something in his form or his makeup that causes that?
“A lot of it is the type of shots you’re getting, getting good early rhythm shots and seeing the ball go through the basket versus having to shoot tough shots off the dribble and sometimes you miss a couple of shots. Everything as a coach, I’m always trying to figure out how do I get certain guys easy buckets and let them see the ball go through the basket. That’s a part of it.”
He’s a facilitator for your offense and does a lot of different things, but he’s only had six double-figure scoring games (out of 16). Do you want him to score more?
“It really depends just on the situation. Like you said, we put him in a lot of positions and ultimately we just want him making good reads. He’s’ got a post game, he’s got a pick and roll game, he’s got a 3-point game, so depending on who we’re playing, we put him in those kind of different situations and we’re happy if you’re in pick and rolls, if you’re just making plays, we don’t care about your scoring. It’s about efficiency, about what’s there and what you’re taking.”
At UNLV he shot the lights out in his freshman year, making 38 of 78 3s (48.7 percent) and 79.5 percent of his free throws, but his sophomore year he hit only 31 of 103 3s and 59.4 percent of his free throws. Is he a guy that gets on long streaks good and bad?
“Part of it I think was maybe conditioning, so we’re always constantly trying to do with our team, how many times have we come back from down double digits. We had a pretty good run the other night, but it was such a big-ass deficit, and to complicate it there were a bunch of points we would have gotten back. Take my technical foul away, take those two points away, where are we, but on the other hand, if I don’t get the T, they don’t review the 3-point play. I don’t mind getting a T if I’m wrong, but if I’m right … the referee from the weak side came over to get me. Whatever. It is what it is.”
What concerns you the most about UConn?
“They’ve got possibly the best point guard in the league and certainly one of the top point guards in the country in (Jalen) Adams. He’s certainly one of the top point guards in the country. He’s a scorer. He’s a facilitator (averages 18.5 points and 4.2 assists). (Terry) Larrier, their small forward, is 6-8 and really shoots the ball and can be a big-time scorer. Their perimeter guys are doing most of their scoring, but they are good. You’ve got to force them to shoot contested shots. We have to contain Adams first and make them shoot contested shots.”
It was a longer practice than usual (four hours counting film study). Is that a direct reflection of your disappointment in the Memphis game?
“We can do it because there’s no class, but it was the film session. We had a long film session because part of it encompassed the Memphis game in particular because some of the stuff that Memphis runs, UConn runs as well, so there’s an overlap there to see all the mistakes and come work on it as well. It was mainly because the film session went a long time.”
Samir Sehic hit three 3s against Memphis (in four attempts). That’s a part of his game but he had not shot them well to that point. How much can that help going forward?
“It’s one of the things that we need. He’s capable of certainly helping us without that, but that extra dimension is a great weapon for me to have. When we’re down I was able to run a couple of plays out of timeouts where you go bang-bang and all of sudden the lead shrunk. It’s a good job when you can make it back in those chunks.”
What do you want to see in the first half against UConn?
“We have a game plan, and if they beat us by executing against our game plan, they’re just a really good team. Guys contested shots and they made shots. It happens, but that means it’s going to be a close game. The game the other night, our effort level and what we gave up, those were the things you try to take away in the game plan. If they had made other shots because of what we were doing and how we were helping, that’s on me. I’ll take that and we’ve got to adjust to it, but we didn’t do it. Once we did it the second half, we had success, so it was really a matter of our effort and our focus and not coming out with that killer instinct.”
Melvin Frazier is in outstanding condition, but he had cramps in the second half against Memphis. What happened?
“It could have been tied to me not giving him a rest. That’s one thing. My assistants talked about substituting for him and I said I can’t take him off the floor. Right now he’s the guy they can’t guard (Frazier finished with 28 points) and I have to keep putting pressure on them. Either he was getting scores or we were getting good looks because of him. I don’t know. Keep getting more fluids, but it’s tough. When a guy’s your best defender and you go to him at the other end of the floor, he’s not getting much of a rest
“But I always go back to when I was in college, I didn’t come out of a game. I never came out of a game. I played 36 minutes a night. If a game was in doubt, I was in the game. I was in condition for it, and we try to condition our guys, but I get it. Cramps. He gave us a great effort, and it was unfortunate I had to take him out for a couple of minutes even.”
Sammis Reyes has not been around for a while. Is he gone permanently?
“Yeah. We had a conversation when we let him go to South America to play in this game (for the Chilean national team in November). He came back from South America, and the good news is had good exposure over there and thought there was maybe an opportunity for him to have some pro offers over there. We just talked in terms of how did I see his playing time and what was going on, and I told him basically it would be just kind of the way it’s been (Reyes played a total of seven minutes in two games). Our younger guys are going to play ahead of you. He said I have a chance to graduate this semester coming up. I’ve got to take a lot of hours in order to do it, but would you let me concentrate on my studies so I could graduate and maybe take advantage of some of the opportunities I have. I felt like that was fair and we would do that.
So he’s still on campus?
“He’s still in school. When this happened, I explained to the team, one time in a hundred would I like anybody leave our team to do this, but the fact is I don’t see playing time there and don’t want to hurt his opportunities. I’m all about what’s best for the kids, right? And so at the time it took place, it’s not going to hurt as a group. Hopefully it works out.”
**What's your take on whether or not UCF should have been in the playoff and whether writers should be shredded for voting the Knights as low as ninth?
"Wait, you're really going there again. How about doing a better job of providing timely news on your site rather than challenging your subscribers?
**(question not actually asked)